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Shuppet Line/ORAS
Shuppet can be found on Routes 121, 123, and Mt. Pyre in both games. In the interior of Mt. Pyre, Shuppet is a guaranteed encounter if a Horde battle is triggered. The Banettite is found in Mt. Pyre. Banette would have a least impactful Mega Evolution award by popular vote, if only it were popular enough to be voted for anything. The unfortunate stat spread is the bane of its existence: high Attack but with little to no coverage, good-but-not-great Special Attack supported by Calm Mind, and not enough Speed or defenses to actually set up. Mega Banette has much of the same issues, gaining a relatively low amount of Speed points and not enough in its defensive stats to matter. Though Mega Banette's matchups are better than regular Banette's, the difference is not that great, and rarely impactful. Nevertheless, Banette is not a bad Pokémon to have, and its coverage will find it a niche in some battles for which specific counters are needed. It can also help against Tate and Liza, proving itself a good battle partner for the likely resident Water-type of the team. Important Matchups * Courtney/Matt (Mt. Pyre): Banette 2HKOs Sharpedo with Thunderbolt, but is beaten by Camerupt's Earth Power. Mega Banette can also 2HKO Camerupt with Shadow Claw. * Rival (Lilycove City): Banette 2HKOs Swellow and 2-3HKOs Wailord with Thunderbolt, but must switch out against Wailord if it starts using Amnesia, as the combination of Rest and Water Spout will otherwise endanger more than just Banette. Mega Banette works better against Wailord, 2HKOing it for certain unless Amnesia is used. Banette also gets a free KO against Breloom, whose offensive moves are all Fighting-type; Magcargo is 3HKOed by Shadow Ball. Sceptile can be 2-3HKOed with Shadow Claw, or 3-4HKOed with Shadow Ball. Blaziken and Swampert are both too strong for Banette, but Mega Banette can 2HKO the former and 3HKO the latter, both with Shadow Claw. * Courtney/Matt (Lilycove Hideout): Banette can still 2HKO Sharpedo with Thunderbolt, and also 3HKO Camerupt with Shadow Claw. * Gym #7 - Tate and Liza (Mossdeep City, Psychic-type): Shadow Claw 1-2HKOs Lunatone, the most dangerous of the two, which can 2HKO Banette with Psychic; whether or not Banette comes out victorious depends on which Pokémon is faster: Banette may outspeed if its Speed investment is sufficient, but otherwise Lunatone will hit first, and if Banette fails to OHKO it will get 2HKOed in return. Solrock's Rock Slide is a 3HKO at best, and either Shadow Claw or Shadow Ball will net the 2HKO. Mega Banette has a much better matchup: Shadow Claw is guaranteed to OHKO both Pokémon. * Maxie/Archie (Seafloor Cavern): Mightyena is powerless against Banette, having only Take Down as an offensive move; Dazzling Gleam 2HKOs it. Weezing and Muk only have STAB and Normal coverage, so Banette can 3HKO both with Shadow Claw. Crobat should be avoided; while Thunderbolt 2HKOs it, its Acrobatics also has high changes of 2HKOing Banette, and Sucker Punch is not sufficient to KO after a Thunderbolt. Mega Banette has much better chances of surviving two Acrobatics, and is highly likely to win. Mega Camerupt and Mega Sharpedo both have strong physical moves that Banette should stay far away from; Mega Banette can 2-3HKO Mega Camerupt with Shadow Claw, but Mega Sharpedo still OHKOs it. * Primal Groudon (Cave of Origin, Omega Ruby only): No. Precipice Blades OHKOs Banette even in its Mega form. * Primal Kyogre (Cave of Origin, Alpha Sapphire only): No. Origin Pulse OHKOs Banette even in its Mega form. * Gym #8 - Wallace (Sootopolis City, Water-type): Banette can use Calm Mind against Luvdisc until it reaches +6, keeping healed from the likely Sweet Kiss-induced confusion and possible Attract; after that, Thunderbolt will OHKO all of Wallace's team except Whiscash, which is still OHKOed by Shadow Ball. For Mega Banette, +5 is sufficient. * Wally (Victory Road): Banette may manage a setup in this fight only if healed, as it needs +4 in Special Attack (through Calm Mind) to then OHKO Altaria with Dazzling Gleam, Delcatty and Roselia with Psychic, and 2HKO Magneton with Shadow Ball as it has Sturdy. A healthy Banette may also OHKO Mega Gallade with Shadow Ball with this setup, but it needs three quarters of its health to be sure to survive a Psycho Cut, and critical hits may still creep in. Mega Banette also needs +4 to ensure all OHKOs, but can take hits better than regular Banette. * Elite Four Sidney (Ever Grande City, Dark-type): Banette has little hope of being useful against Sidney, as all of his Pokémon 1-2HKO it with Crunch and most can outspeed; it may only OHKO Sharpedo with Dazzling Gleam, and only if it survives a Crunch. Mega Banette, on the other hand, is just fast enough to outspeed all but Sharpedo and can take a Crunch from Mightyena, as well as OHKO every Pokémon with Dazzling Gleam after just one Calm Mind. Mega Banette still needs to be switched out against Sharpedo, though, as it would lose against it. * Elite Four Phoebe (Ever Grande City, Ghost-type): Banette can use Calm Mind against Dusclops and take a Shadow Punch from it; after that, Shadow Ball OHKOs Dusclops and the two Banette, and Dazzling Gleam OHKOs Sableye. Shadow Ball also 1-2HKOs Dusknoir, and its Hex will deal relatively little damage if Banette is not afflicted by a status condition. Mega Banette needs to follow the same route to win, as it would not OHKO Sableye without Calm Mind boosts, and that would cause Sableye's Foul Play to score the kill. * Elite Four Glacia (Ever Grande City, Ice-type): Banette should leave the first Glalie alone, as it knows Crunch; it can OHKO one of the two Froslass with Shadow Ball, but requires to sit out the other battle, as a single Shadow Ball from one of the Froslass takes away over half of its health. Alternatively, it can use Calm Mind against the second Glalie once, and then 2HKO with Shadow Ball. After one Calm Mind, Banette also 2HKOs Walrein with Thunderbolt. Mega Banette has the same issues, although it also has a moderate chance of 2HKOing Walrein even without Calm Mind; using the move is still advised, as it also crucially reduces the damage intake from Blizzard in the event that Mega Banette fails to 2HKO. * Elite Four Drake (Ever Grande City, Dragon-type): Though Altaria constitutes good setup material, opening up a possibility to use Calm Mind and hit +3 before OHKOing with Dazzling Gleam, the setup will likely prove insufficient to solo Drake: Flygon's Earthquake and Salamence's Dragon Rush can both deal over half of Banette's health in damage, and they outspeed as well. Kingdra is easier, as its set is entirely special, but a Banette without prior setups will find itself disadvantaged and probably still lose against it, due to Surf being a 3HKO. Mega Banette has a better matchup against Flygon, OHKOing from +2 onwards, but needs to get to +3 to also OHKO Altaria, Kingdra and Salamence for certain, attaining roughly the same overall matchup with the entire team. * Champion Steven (Ever Grande City, Steel-type): Banette should first 2HKO Skarmory with Thunderbolt. Then, if Claydol comes out, it can use Calm Mind twice (or more, if Claydol puts up Light Screen) and then OHKO with Shadow Ball; if Cradily comes out instead, Banette needs to use Calm Mind three times before it can 2HKO with Shadow Ball. For Mega Banette, no boost is needed to 2HKO Claydol, and a +2 is enough to 2HKO Cradily. Using Calm Mind against Cradily for longer than that is somewhat dangerous, as Cradily threatens to boost all of its stats with Ancient Power. Aggron, Armaldo and Mega Metagross are all physical hitters, and Banette works poorly against them; even if it Mega Evolves, it can still be 2HKOed, if not OHKOed, by all of them. * Post-Game: The bane of Banette's existence remains its Speed, Mega Evolution or not. As a result, it will likely turn out moderately useful, but not crucial to win any given battle. Moves Shuppet starts with Curse, Hex, Feint Attack, and either Will-O-Wisp or Shadow Ball, the latter learned at level 30. Although Shuppet's Attack is better than its Special Attack, STAB supersedes Feint Attack's base power, thus only Ghost coverage should be kept. It learns the relatively useless Embargo at level 34 and then evolves, getting the much more useful Sucker Punch at level 40; if used well, this move can deal significant damage and have Banette bypass its own low Speed, though a non-STAB base 80 power move is highly unlikely to one-shot anything from full health. Banette's other level-up moves are not interesting: Snatch comes at level 46, but needs better prediction than Sucker Punch and is less effective; Grudge, at level 52, should never be used in a nuzlocke context and Trick, at level 58, requires a turn of dubious usefulness to execute. Only Phantom Force may deserve a spot on Banette's moveset, but it depends on whether or not Banette will be trained that far, as it only learns the move at level 64. Fortunately, Phantom Force is also accessible via Move Reminder, as it is also a level 1 move. Although Banette's best asset is its Attack, its physical options are very limited: it only gets Shadow Claw for STAB, and then... Normal coverage, in the form of Return. Banette also has no access to moves that can boost its Attack. On the other hand, its lesser offensive stat is very well supported: aside from Shadow Ball, also teachable by TM, Banette gets Thunderbolt and Thunder for any resident Water-type needs, Dazzling Gleam covers it against Dragon- and Dark-types, Psychic can hit Fighting-types for higher base damage than Dazzling Gleam, and both Calm Mind and Charge Beam function as stat boosters. Since Banette is slow and frail, Calm Mind will work best, as it permits it to take at least some hits. Banette also has excellent support moves available: Thunder Wave and Will-O-Wisp respectively cover it for its lacking Speed and Defense stas, as well as doubling the base power of Hex. Alternatively, Banette may run Trick Room, which is especially useful in teams full of slow Pokémon. DexNav specimens can get further support in the form of Confuse Ray, more coverage with Gunk Shot, priority thanks to Shadow Sneak, and even an early Phantom Force. Recommended moveset: Calm Mind, Shadow Ball, Thunderbolt, Dazzling Gleam Recommended Teammates * Dark- or Fairy-types: Ghost and Dark are both defensively covered by Dark, leaving the team virtually without any shared weaknesses. Dual Dark-types are preferred to pure Dark-types, as they typically get better coverage against their Dark relatives; some Fairy-types also perform this job well. ** Good Pokémon that fit this description include, among others: Shiftry, Azumarill, Sharpedo, Crawdaunt, Altaria, Absol * Physical tanks: Banette's Defense is low. Aside from absorbing Normal and Fighting moves, it can do very little against enemies with proper coverage against Ghost-types. Therefore, it is appropriate to have at least one physical tank on board. ** Good Pokémon that fit this description include, among others: Swampert, Slaking, Azumarill, Golem, Probopass, Aggron, Magnezone, Torkoal, Skarmory, Armaldo, Donphan, Rhyperior * Special tanks: Banette's Special Defense is also low; its resources are very limited in terms of tanking capability, even when Mega Evolved. There should be a proper special tank on the team, which can handle switching in on strong special moves. ** Good Pokémon that fit this description include, among others: Ludicolo, Gyarados, Azumarill, Probopass, Tentacruel, Vileplume, Altaria, Cradily, Milotic, Ninetales * Fast hitters: Among the other issues Banette has, there is Speed. Few Pokémon are both fast and without any weaknesses in common with Banette; they are mostly Electric-types, which also make good leads. ** Good Pokémon that fit this description include, among others: Sceptile, Crobat, Manectric, Electrode Other Shuppet's stats Banette's stats Mega Banette's stats * What Nature do I want? Banette's best stat is its Attack, but due to its movepool, it will also need its Special Attack a great deal. Since its defenses are naturally poor, natures like Lonely, Mild, Naughty and Rash will improve its battle performance without detracting much from its nearly non-existent sturdiness. * Which Ability do I want? Insomnia is theoretically more useful, although not many enemies have sleep moves to use. Cursed Body may occasionally turn out helpful as well, but in general terms, all of Banette's abilities make little difference in its performance. * At what point in the game should I be evolved? Shuppet should, by all means, be evolved before taking part in any major battle. * How good is the Shuppet line in a Nuzlocke? Average, due to its lacking Speed and bulk. Mega Banette somewhat compensates for regular Banette's very lacking Defenses, but it encounters many of the same issues along the way. While never completely bad or unhelpful, it is definitely not one of the best Mega Pokémon to have. * Weaknesses: Ghost, Dark * Resistances: Poison, Bug * Immunities: Normal, Fighting * Neutralities: Flying, Ground, Rock, Steel, Fire, Water, Grass, Electric, Psychic, Ice, Dragon, Fairy Category:Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire Category:List of Evolutionary Lines with Completed Analyses